[b-greek] Re: Phil. 2:10, 11

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sat Dec 15 2001 - 13:19:07 EST


At 12:58 PM -0500 12/15/01, Ted Mann wrote:
>Greetings friends:
> In Phil. 2:10 and 11 the NASB has ".. at the name of Jesus every knee
>will bow.. and.. every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.. "
>The NIV and NRSV have "should" instead of "will." However, the use of the
>subjunctive in Phil. 2:10 and 11 makes me wonder if "should" (or perhaps
>"might?") is to be preferred over "will." I know this is a quote of Isaiah
>45:23, and I assume the Hebrew is best translated "will" or "shall." I
>don't have the LXX to hand, so I don't know what is written there. Does
>Paul quote the LXX here? If so, does the LXX use the subjunctive?
> Here is my main question: Is it possible that Paul deliberately used
>(what has come to be called) the subjunctive here in order to soften the
>meaning of this OT passage so as to imply that men "should" bow and confess,
>rather than "will"? (I also note in one of my versions that the beginning
>of this statement is translated "in the name of Jesus.. " I guess EN can
>mean either "in" or "at.")

Ted, the reason Paul uses the subjunctive is simply that KAMYHi is in a
hINA purpose clause; he may be citing Isaiah 45:23, but he (or--if he is
citing a hymn already current in Gentile Christianity--the original
composer of it) is adapting it to the construction here to fit a purpose
clause. Whether it's right to translate a purpose clause with a future
indicative is another question; it's not something that I'd do.
--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

---
B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [jwrobie@mindspring.com]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-327Q@franklin.oit.unc.edu
To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu




This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:14 EDT